Tuesday, February 05, 2019

"The Luck of Some Weird Dice"

I read a short, but cool interview with Ethan Hawke last week in Cowboys & Indians magazine. He was talking about the movie Blaze that he directed about relatively obscure singer-songwriter Blaze Foley. Turns out, Foley's obscurity is part of what drew Hawke to his story.

I haven't traditionally been a huge fan of Hawke's work, but he's been growing on me in recent years and I think he's an interesting dude. I love the generosity expressed here about Foley and other artists and the fickleness of success. Hawke's talking about musicians and actors, but of course it applies to writers, visual artists, bloggers, podcasters, or whatever creative enterprise you might find yourself in.
When I heard the story of Blaze Foley, I thought about my own perceived success, and how it juxtaposed with so many artists who are met with indifference and hostility because of the luck of some weird dice. Maybe it was a reflection or a residue of guilt. That's the negative way of looking at it. But I prefer to think of Blaze as an expression of love and wondering and respect for all the people who I've seen who didn't have the easy path that Dead Poets Society created for me.

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